Finding Someone New
by write4life92
Summary: It's the Marauders' Seventh Year, and Remus and Sirius are getting tired of James mooning over Lily. Their solution? Write an anonymous love letter, and leave it a classroom. Who will find it? You'll have to read to find out!
1. Letters

"You sure he's still being stalled by that first year?" Remus called over to Peter, who was crouched over the Marauder's Map. Remus was leaning over Sirius's shoulder, watching as the grey-eyed Marauder scribbled a letter on a piece of parchment.

"Still being stalled, but I think you will only have ten more minutes, max," Peter called back, watching the Map like his life depended on it.

"No, no, no!" Remus yelled at Sirius. "We're trying to get James a date with a girl that's good for him, _not _trying to hook you up with a girl to snog!" He ripped the paper up and pushed Sirius out of the desk. "What was I thinking, asking Sirius to write a thoughtful, kind-of-person-a-Lily-like-girl-would-want-to-date letter?" Remus muttered as he sat down to write the letter himself. "He doesn't know how to be thoughtful! He couldn't be thoughtful if his life depended on it!" He finished writing the letter, and tossed it over to Sirius, who scanned it before nodding.

"You were right, Remus. Much better then mine!" he said, bouncing on the bed.

"Let me see it!" Peter said, scrambling over to them. Remus and Sirius looked at each other. There were sometimes when they realized just how rat-like Peter was, and it threw them for a loop every time. Suddenly there were footsteps on the stairs.

"He's coming! Peter, why weren't you watching the bloody map?" Sirius whisper-shouted.

"How could I? I was over here with you guys!" Peter whined. Sirius only glared, and stuffed the letter under the bed. When James came in, the other Marauders were sitting on Remus's bed, playing Exploding Snap, calm as could be. At least, Remus and Sirius were calm. Peter was looking extremely guilty.

"What's up with him?" James asked, motioning toward Peter, who was sitting completely upright on the bed, an odd expression on his face.

"Something at lunch disagreed with him," Sirius lied smoothly. "We'll take you down to the Hospital Wing, Wormtail. Come on, Moony. We'll see you in Transfiguration, James!" The last part was shouted, because they were halfway down the stairs by that time.

"Got the fireworks, Wormtail? You know what to do, right?" Remus said, looking nervous. He hated to break the rules in McGonagall's class, because she was downright scary when she was mad, but since this was to help James, he was forcing himself to overcome his nervousness.

Peter nodded and patted his bag, where their means of distraction was located.

"Okay, let's go over Operation Get James Over Lily one more time," Sirius said quickly. They only had a few minutes before James showed up. The Marauders bent their heads as Sirius quickly went over the assignments. Then the bell rang and they went quickly into class.

"You sure that this is the right book?" Sirius whispered to Remus. They were hovering over a desk in the Transfiguration classroom. The rest of their classmates were up at the front of the room, staring at the fireworks soaring around McGonagall.

"Yeah, the blonde Ravenclaw was sitting over here and looking through it at the beginning of class. Let's just put the letter in here," Remus said, looking nervous. Sirius put it in the middle of the book, sticking it up a little at the top. The bell rang as they were walking back to their seats, and all the students rushed out to dinner. The blonde, however, lingered, and to Sirius and Remus's horror, gave the Transfiguration book to a tall Ravenclaw. She was saying something, and they strained to catch her words.

"Thanks for letting me borrow your book, Kevin," she seemed to be saying.

"No problem," he said, blushing. The blonde walked away, and Kevin looked in a daze for a few moments before he snapped himself out of it. Sirius and Remus watched, wondering whether he would find the letter or not. They never found out, because Kevin left the room, and James walked back in, wondering what was taking them so long.

As Kevin walked towards the Ravenclaw Common Room, he encountered a trick step, and because his thoughts were so caught up with Lisa, he tripped. His books slipped everywhere, including his Transfiguration book. The letter slipped out of his book and lay forgotten on a step, where it lay until the next person who was caught in the step would pick it up.

Lily headed back to the Gryffindor Common Room, her head buried in an Ancient Runes textbook, but her mind dwelling on the scene at dinner. '_What had Severus been thinking? I haven't talked to him in two years, and he hadn't seemed that bothered by it, so why was he suddenly talking to me now? Surely he didn't think that I'd forgive him, not after all this time! Sev was smarter than that! So why was he trying to talk to me?...' _She was so immersed in her thoughts that she didn't notice the trick step until it was too late. She was stuck.

What a funny picture she must have made, stuck in a step up to her waist, her legs dangling down. "Help!" she cried, but felt it was futile. After all, everyone else was at dinner. The Ancient Runes textbook lay a few feet away, and she glared at it, even though her thoughts for the last few minutes had been far from Ancient Runes. _'Stupid Ancient Runes, stupid Sev, stupid trick step. Why couldn't I have waited with Leah and Char? They wouldn't have taken very long, maybe ten or fifteen minutes, and then I wouldn't have been stuck in the step. Why did I have to go rushing out of there like a maniac, just because a guy spoke to me? Granted, this was Sev, not just any guy, but still, I didn't need to react that way.' _

She continued her mental rant for a few minutes, enjoying the self-indulgence of blaming her problems on others, when a folded piece of parchment caught her eye. She picked it up, figuring that it might be something interesting, but if it wasn't, then it was probably someone's homework, and she could do someone a favor by returning it, and opened it to find a very unusual letter.

_ Dear whoever is reading this,_

_Hopefully this is a girl. If it's a guy, please pass this to the nearest girl, and stop reading immediately, because this could get a little awkward. _

_This is a girl now, I trust? Good. Now, onto the real point of this letter. I'm a nice guy, whose looking for a nice girl to go out with. The problem is, I'm shy. Every time I try to ask a girl out, I freeze up and usually stutter some nonsense syllables. So I'm trying a new approach. _

_I'm leaving a letter trail. Every letter will have a random fact about me, and will lead you on to the next letter. After ten letters, it will tell you a time and a place to meet me. Sound good so far?_

_Here's the catch. You've got to write letters back. You also have to tell me a random fact about yourself, and leave the letter in a place that I tell you._

_Interested? If you are, please leave a letter under the big willow tree near the lake._

_I'm a nice guy, I promise you, but I'm unlucky in love. I hope you give me a chance and leave a letter under the tree. _

_See you soon…I hope,_

_Anonymous _

Her jaw dropped open. What was she going to do now?


	2. Reactions

_ Dear whoever is reading this,_

_Hopefully this is a girl. If it's a guy, please pass this to the nearest girl, and stop reading immediately, because this could get a little awkward. _

_This is a girl now, I trust? Good. Now, onto the real point of this letter. I'm a nice guy, whose looking for a nice girl to go out with. The problem is, I'm shy. Every time I try to ask a girl out, I freeze up and usually stutter some nonsense syllables. So I'm trying a new approach. _

_I'm leaving a letter trail. Every letter will have a random fact about me, and will lead you on to the next letter. After ten letters, it will tell you a time and a place to meet me. Sound good so far?_

_Here's the catch. You've got to write letters back. You also have to tell me a random fact about yourself, and leave the letter in a place that I tell you._

_Interested? If you are, please leave a letter under the big willow tree near the lake._

_I'm a nice guy, I promise you, but I'm unlucky in love. I hope you give me a chance and leave a letter under the tree. _

_See you soon…I hope,_

_Anonymous _

Her jaw dropped open. What was she going to do now?

Lily, for once in her life was speechless. This was a rare occurrence in her life, and was usually caused by James Potter. This time, however, a simple piece of parchment rendered her with no words. _ I must be losing my touch _she thought, staring blankly at the letter, her mouth wide open in shock. She stayed that way until the voices of her best friends, Charlotte and Leah shook her out of her reverie.

"Lily, Lily, _ Lily !_" Char's voice echoed through the hall. A naturally loud person, she was even louder now that she was trying to get her unresponsive friend's attention. She ran up the stairs, her shoes making thumping noises that echoed throughout the large hall.

Leah, her other best friend, was quiet in comparison. Her light brown hair and navy blue eyes were part of what made her such a good blend-into-the-background kind of person, which was just the way she liked it. She appeared quiet and shy to most people, and they tended to overlook her, giving her a chance to pick up valuable gossip and little tidbits of information that people didn't want publicly known. This made her the official informant for her group of friends.

Charlotte had finally caught up to Lily, and was attempting to pull her out of the staircase. "Give me a hand, would you, Leah?" she asked, grunting as she pulled Lily's arm.

"Sure," Leah answered, "how'd you get yourself stuck in here anyway?" she asked Lily, straining to pull her out.

"Long story," Lily replied as they finally managed to pull her out of the step. "We need to call a group meeting. Char, can you get Sean and Greg? Leah, can you get Keegan, Natalie, and Sarah? I'll grab Andi and meet you guys in the Head's Common Room."

"Sure," they replied, and headed toward Gryffindor Common Room. Lily gathered up her things and headed to Ravenclaw Tower. It was time to do some planning.

_Earlier, at dinner, James' POV_

"So, what was up with you guys today?" James asked through a mouthful of food.

Remus, Sirius and Peter exchanged nervous looks. "What do you mean, James?"

"I'm not stupid. I know you guys were trying to hide something from me when I walked in after lunch, and the fireworks in Transfiguration were a distraction so you could do whatever you were planning without getting in trouble." James sat back, looking smug.

"Not quite without getting in trouble," Peter muttered, "I got a week of detention."

"Do you think we should tell him?" Sirius said, looking at the others. "He's going to have to find out eventually."

"I guess so," said Remus. The three of them blurted out the story to James, who was looking more furious by the second.

"And then some Ravenclaw guy took the book from her and walked out. We would have followed him, but you showed up," Remus concluded apprehensively.

"How could you guys do something like that! I've been chasing Lily for 5 bloody years! I'm not going to stop because of some letter. But," he said, calming down slightly, "I guess Fate didn't like your plans."

"What does Fate have to do with this! It was a brilliant plan!" Sirius said, looking outraged at the suggestion that his plan wasn't a good one.

"Well," James patiently explained, "if the letter thing was actually going to get me the girl of my dreams, don't you think that fate would have arranged it? Face it, this letter thing just isn't the way to go. If it was, Fate would have made sure it fell into the right girl's hands."

"You know, Remus…that actually made sense. I think we'll have to take his word on this," Sirius commented, helping himself to some treacle tart.

"Fine," Remus sighed, "but you have to check the willow every day next week, just in case."

James opened his mouth to reply when a distraction in the form of Charlotte Holloway came rushing up the table. The Marauders watched as she walked over to where her twin and his best friend, Greg, were sitting, spoke to them, and, when they didn't respond to her liking, grabbed them both by the collars of their robes and hauled them out of the Great Hall. The hall had gone silent, as everyone watched Charlotte haul her brother and his friend out by their collar, and as soon as the door had slammed shut, everyone burst into laughter before returning to their dinners.


	3. Meetings

After Charlotte had disappeared, James looked over at Sirius, Peter, and Remus. He could tell that they were thinking the same thing as he was.

"Heads Common Room?" he smirked, getting out of his seat.

Sirius and Remus nodded. Peter, however, shook his head dejectedly. "I have to go serve that detention with McGonagall."

"Bad luck, mate," Remus said, following James out of the hall.

All four of them knew that when Charlotte dragged the guys away from food, it was usually for a meeting with the girls in Lily's Head Girl Common Room, and those meetings were the source of a lot of their gossip and information. Since Charlotte usually waited until the guys had at least finished what was on their plates, it must be urgent if she was dragging them away without giving them that chance. They had to hurry, because they didn't want to miss a single minute.

They walked swiftly up to the Heads' Room, where James gave the password. They quietly hurried in, trying not to make any noise. The Heads' Common Room was a small room each for Lily and James, where they could study without being disturbed. Luckily for the Marauders, the walls were thin, so they could listen in without much trouble.

At least, they could easily listen in _usually. _Unbeknownst to them, their roommates, Sean and Greg, had figured out that they were in the habit of eavesdropping, and had taken precautions, namely the _Muffliato_ spell. Snape may have been a greasy little git, but his spells were bloody useful, and lucky for us, for if the Marauders had been able to listen in to the entire conversation, we wouldn't have a very interesting story.

Unfortunately for Sean, he couldn't do non-verbal spells very well, and since that was how _Muffliato _was cast, his spell wasn't very strong, allowing the Marauders to hear bits and pieces of what was being said in the meeting. The words "letter", "willow tree" and "what to do" were heard quite often. When they had finished talking and left the common room, the Marauders were sitting on the ground, identical shocked looks on their faces. Who would have thought that Fate had sent the letter to someone so close to Lily?

"Prongs, you must have some bad karma or something. Someone up there must hate you to make that letter fall into one of Lily's friends' hands." Remus said, shaking his head dejectedly.

James, on the other hand, was looking decidedly more cheerful. "Well, what if fate is on my side? It could be Lily herself!" he said, a huge grin on his face that Remus and Sirius recognized as "The Lily Look".

They glanced at each other, then burst out laughing. "No way, Prongs, no way. There is no way that you got lucky enough to have Lily find your letter. No one is that lucky." Remus said, trying to control his mirth; Sirius on the other hand wasn't even trying, and was rolling on the floor laughing.

James's grin disappeared as he considered this, and then he nodded. "I guess you're right. Well, who knows? Maybe I can get one of Lily's friends to fall for me. Then maybe she'll see what she's missing."

"Or you'll fall in love with whoever has the letter, and forget all about Lily," Sirius suggested.

"I'll never forget Lily. I think…I think I love her," James said, a serious look on his face.

Sirius and Remus glanced at each other and shook their heads. Operation Get James over Lily was going to be harder then they thought.

An hour later, they were sneaking down to the kitchens, trying to soothe their rumbling stomachs. Between leaving dinner early, and the exhausting and unsuccessful discussion they had just finished, it wasn't any wonder that they were still hungry.

Lily, Leah, Keegan, Natalie, and Andi were all sitting in a semi-circle, waiting for Charlotte and the guys. Suddenly there was a commotion at the door and three people tumbled inside. First was Charlotte, her curly brown hair in disarray. She was followed by her twin, and last was Greg, who made a slightly more dignified entrance. Sean got off the floor and glared at his twin, who was lying on her back, looking up at him serenely.

"What?" she asked, an overly innocent look on her face. This was too much for Sean, and he exploded at Charlotte.

"What do you mean, "WHAT"? You know perfectly well why Greg and I are angry at you!" Sean looked to his best friend for back-up, but Greg just looked at him.

"You're on your own with this one, mate. I'm not planning on getting in between you and Charlotte on the battlefield. I don't have a death wish." Greg smirked. Undaunted, Sean turned back to his sister.

"No, I don't think I know why you are mad at me, Sean. Why don't you enlighten me?" Charlotte suggested, beginning to look smug. The onlookers were whispering amongst themselves. Charlotte and Sean's arguments were always amusing, and it had been common for their friends to place bets on who would win their frequent quarrels.

"I bet 5 Galleons Charlotte will leave him sputtering," Lily whispered to Greg, who had taken a seat next to her.

Greg grinned. "Done. Anyone else want to bet against Sean and lose money to me?" Andi, Leah and Keegan all bet against Sean, but Natalie hesitated.

"I don't know, guys. Sean might actually win this time."

Keegan laughed. "You only say that because you like him," she hissed quietly. Natalie blushed and vehemently denied it, but decided not to bet after all. Meanwhile, Charlotte and Sean were continuing the argument.

"The reason I am mad at you, Charlotte, is because you dragged me out of dinner, _before_ I had finished, and wouldn't even tell me why. THAT is why I am mad." Sean crossed his arms over his chest and glared down at Charlotte.

"Oh…that's why you're mad? That's a bit ridiculous, don't you think?" Sean started sputtering out nonsense words, and Greg handed 5 Galleons to Lily, who looked very smug. "I don't understand why you're mad; I did grab four of the sandwiches for you, after all." Charlotte sat up and fished around in her bag before handing two sandwiches to Greg and two to Sean. Sean looked dumbstruck, before grabbing the sandwiches and falling on them like he hadn't eaten in a month.

"Thmmf youg Choelote," he mumbled around a mouthful of food. Swallowing, he added, "You're a lifesaver." Greg nodded in assent.

Charlotte blushed and smiled. "You're welcome, boys. Now, what is it that you wanted to tell us, Lily?"

"Well, it's kind of silly, really, but I wanted your guys' opinion. See, I found this letter while I was stuck on the trick step and…."

"Wait a second," Sean interrupted. He screwed his face up in what the gang called his "concentration look", then relaxed it a minute later. "Ok, go on."

"I wanted you guys to take a look at the letter, and tell me what you think I should do." She fished the letter out of her bag and handed it to Greg, who scanned it and then passed it around the circle.

Typical loudmouth Char was the first to voice her opinion. "I think you should answer it. Think about it, this may be the only chance you have until after we graduate to get asked out by someone who isn't James Potter."

"What do you guys think?" Lily asked the rest of them. They all agreed, even Keegan, who was good friends with the Marauders and couldn't see why Lily wouldn't go out with James.

"I think that one of us should watch the willow tree for a few days after you respond to it. That way, we might be able to figure out who it is," Greg suggested. "Return it on Friday afternoon. Someone will probably pick it up within the weekend."

"Perfect!" Lily exclaimed, reaching over to give Greg a hug. "So…what should I say?"

The girls fell to writing out a good letter, while the guys sat back and waited for them to be done. This was going to be a long night.


End file.
